ABSTRACT
The design and deployment of biotechnological processes at the industrial level present many common points with the chemical engineering industry. This chapter describes how a cross-disciplinary approach can transpose relevant solutions from one sector to solve similar problems identified in another sector and improve its performance. It presents thermodynamic modeling approaches developed to increase understanding and improve the evaluation of reaction pathways. The chapter discusses a "group contribution method" that allows estimation of the Gibbs free energy of formation of (bio-)chemical products and their free energy of reaction. It also focuses on the selection of downstream processing steps using a cascaded option trees method. The chapter then applies process system engineering tools like process design, analysis, and optimization to the case of biorefineries, as they provide an interesting example of biotechnological process integration at the industrial scale. In the context of process synthesis, process models are necessary for simulating process flowsheets.
